


Chocolate and Roses vs. Heartache

by Trashibesensei



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Friendship/Love, Hurt/Comfort, Jock AU, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-19
Updated: 2018-12-19
Packaged: 2019-09-23 02:35:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17071859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trashibesensei/pseuds/Trashibesensei
Summary: It's Valentine's Day at Bright Moon Academy.Usually, Adora would spend her Valentine's Day with her former best friend/now ex-best friend, making fun of couples and watching awful slasher movies at the end of the day - however, ever since she became star player of Bright Moon's soccer team, all of that should drastically change. But can all the chocolates, roses and love letters really make the pain in her chest from losing the most important person in her life go away?(another jock au where it's Valentine's Day, Adora is super popular, but there are a lot of unspoken and unresolved feelings between her and Catra)





	Chocolate and Roses vs. Heartache

**Author's Note:**

> I know you're probably like "eh? Valentine's Day? Isn't that a bit early?" and yes, yes you are right BUT I COULDN'T STOP MYSELF, OKAY?  
> I don't have a Christmas fic for you because I totally didn't realize that Christmas is next monday (I'm a huge idiot and have no awareness of time and space alright?)  
> But, have this!  
> Because there is so much angst going around here, I'm providing you with something lighter. And I hope you enjoy!

It was Valentine’s day at Bright Moon Academy.

And what was Valentine’s day but the perfect opportunity for lovesick couples to be even more extensively gross than usual, and engage in a far too overwhelming amount of PDA at any given chance – much to every onwatcher’s absolute dismay; what was it but the day desperate singles would use radically reduced prices for chocolate to their advantages by stuffing themselves with the sweet and soothing edible sedation for their aching hearts until they would pass out from crying over rom-coms on their couches in the afternoon; what was it but the day that sent some people on edge like a really bad constipation would - a day that just couldn’t be any more controversial as it was, to be exact.

At Bright Moon Academy, Valentine’s day meant that dedicated “flower girls” would be handing out deliveries of hundreds of roses to their peers and everyone was already freaking out over how many roses they would get or who they would get them from the second Adora set foot into school that morning.

There was whispering coming from every last corner of the school and a lot of curious glances being exchanged across the corridors, some – okay no, actually it were  _a lot of glances_  - were even directed at her as she strolled through the halls to her locker, her first stop on that morning as per her usual routine.

She waved and smiled kindly at some of the people that she knew, not quite getting all the commotion around her as she was not used to being the center of attention to this extent. It almost felt as if these people knew something that she didn’t and it made her a little bit nervous, to be fair.

While roses were being distributed during first period this morning, students who had missed the deadline to place orders for their crushes to receive a rose from them, would usually resort to sneakily putting letters into lockers, backpacks or just openly handing them over to the person they liked (if they had enough courage to do so) instead; other students who weren’t as fond of the roses would be gifting their crushes colorful and oversized boxes of chocolate in lieu of the traditional flowers.

Adora had never gotten a rose from someone before. Or chocolate. Or a letter even. No, Adora never even had a Valentine’s date before.

On Valentine’s Day, she and her best fr –  _ex_ -best friend – only used to buy themselves lots and lots of chocolate, make fun of the couples at school and how pretentious they were for taking part in that stupid tradition that capitalism had pretty much turned into some sort of Frankenstein’s monster at this point, and lastly, they would be watching some old but gold slasher movies at home when all TV channels were infested with these dumb, straight people rom-coms that were just so unbearable to watch with all their cliché tropes and unnecessary sex scenes being recycled over and over again. The film industry really hasn’t come up with something new or innovative in that regard in a long time. Where was the queer Christmas story we all deserve? Hollywood was really missing out on a huge opportunity there.

Well, anyway -- that pretty much summed up all the Valentine’s Days Adora had had before she had joined the soccer team and quickly became captain of it. It was before her life had taken a drastic turn and before she had become the buff and confident woman she was now.

It was before this huge distance had grown between Catra and her that wouldn’t even let them speak to each other anymore. It was before Adora had lost her best friend in exchange for a life that was now filled with soccer games every other weekend, fangirls all around her that would come to watch every of her school’s games just because of her (Catra hadn’t watched one since she joined the team), wild parties on the weekends, and new friends that she had grown so fond of that she would basically die for them.

Her life had made a 180 turn in only a year, and Adora had grown from the unpopular misfit to everybody’s favorite soccer goddess. To be honest, she had to admit to herself that since she had joined the team, it did experience a growth in popularity and  _success_  unlike any it had seen before.

So, while Adora’s Valentine’s Days were spent in a very unusual and very much un-cliché type of way for probably most of her life up to now, most of that should drastically change on this fateful day.

With her newly gained popularity, the jock would experience a Valentine’s Day that she would probably remember for the rest of her life.

It all started when Adora went to open her locker to retrieve her textbook and a pile of letters in every variation of coloration and with all kinds and sizes of hearts drawn on them spilled out of it and tumbled down to her feet.

Helplessly staring at the colorful pile that had assembled around her on the ground, she saw that that was by far not all of it when some of the letters appeared to be stuck in between her books as well.

Adora could any stare at her locker in absolute and utter speechlessness. Quickly trying to pick all the letters that had fallen out up from the ground, she had to hurry up in the process as to not come to late for her first class.  
However, with some of the letters just straight-up  _refusing_  to stay put in her locker as it was already bursting at the seams because of the huge amount of them, she barely made it inside the classroom when the first bell rang.

People stared at her in confusion, spotting her red-shot head and breathlessness from sprinting all across the school for her first class while some of the letters that hadn’t fit into her locker anymore had spilled out from her backpack on her way, leaving a literal trail of love behind that lead to her math classroom.

As Adora passed the students in the front row to get to her usual spot in the classroom, some girls sent smiles her way and Adora tried her best to return them, but she had to blow some loose strands of hair out of her face as well as pulling out her math textbook for the class when she sat down, spilling even more love letters on the ground around her.

“Wow, someone’s popular,” someone to her right said, and Adora looked a little helplessly at Mermista, not at all enjoying this huge amount of attention she was receiving.

“This is not even all of it. My locker is spilling over with letters. I have no idea where to put them!” Adora whisper-cried desperately, restlessly staring back and forth between Mermista and the letters on the ground that she was currently trying to stuff back into her backpack.

“That’s the price you pay for being a lesbian idol,” Mermista mumbled humorlessly, scribbling down an equation that the teacher had written down on the whiteboard, not even attempting to help Adora with her letter problem in the slightest.

“I’m not a lesbian idol! I’m just… me,” Adora tried to defend herself since she disliked being called, well,  _that_ as if she were some kind of super famous hollywood star. She was just a small-town girl, really into soccer, and really, really gay.

“Whatever makes you sleep at night,” Mermista replied dryly, focus still on her notes.

Adora pouted at her but stopped when she saw that Mermista wasn’t even paying attention to her anymore before she proceeded her vain attempts at stuffing the letters back into her backpack. But, shortly before she almost lost her patience with the task, she found a better and more effective way to store the letters away without them getting crumbled, and that was by sticking them in between the pages of her hugeass math book.

Would she forget about them later? Most definitely, because that’s just the kind of person that Adora was, but it made her smile every single time when she would later find one after the other letter on one of the pages they had to work on throughout the remainder of the school year.

It was not a lie that Adora liked the attention that she was getting from all the girls that had suddenly developed an interest in her after joining Bright Moon’s soccer team - some even seemed to have developed a rather unhealthy kind of obsession with her - but today, she really felt like that attention was just a little bit too over the top and overwhelming.

Just when was she supposed read all these letters when her schedule was already packed to the brim with training, homework and making time for her friends? How should she even  _answer_  them all?! She really didn’t want to disappoint any of the girls that had taken their valuable time to write a bunch of sweet words to her as Adora always proved to be a people-pleaser and kind enough to return the attention these girls gave her in equal measure. A reason as to why she had become so popular in such a short amount of time in the first place. But this seemed impossible to her without sacrificing part of her soul for it.

Still, little did she know that that was only the start of it.

Thirty minutes into the class a knock was heard on the door. Three students, all of them holding a bunch of beautiful red roses in their arms, filed into the room and made everyone around them excitedly whisper to each other in anticipation of who would get a rose and who would get the most of them. The teacher looked slightly annoyed but let the rose carriers do their thing anyway. It was tradition after all – stupid or not.

The three split up and Adora was well-surprised to find one of the girls halting in front of her table.

“We have a delivery for  _Adora._ ” Somehow the way this girl said her name made Adora feel all weird inside. The obvious wink from her only enhanced that feeling to a very great amount.

The jock was definitely still not used to all the flirting people were doing with her even at this point during her rather successful high school soccer career.

“Uh, cool,” Adora replied, nervously laughing the uncomfortable feeling away. And she was sweating. Why was she sweating?  
“Actually, we have a  _bunch_ of deliveries for you,” the girl added and dropped all the roses she had been carrying on Adora’s desk.

Adora stared blankly at the roses in front of her along with all the other people in the room. It went quiet almost instantly as everyone appeared to be shocked at the sheer number of roses addressed to her.

“There has to be a … mistake.”

But the flower girl shook her head. “I’m afraid there’s not. To be honest, you deserve them all,” the girl, whose name Adora didn’t even know but who somehow seemed to know her very well apparently, whispered somewhat pensively and gave her another wink. “Some of them are from me. You’ll figure out which. And then I want you to call me.” The girl pretty much breathed the last part, almost leaning into Adora’s personal space in that moment, and then turned around with a very pronounced sway of her hips accentuating her exit and left the room together with the other flower girls already waiting for her.

Adora suddenly heard a snort, and blinking herself free from the stillness that this unexpected and odd situation had brought upon her, turned her head to Mermista, who was looking at the jock with a smirk of her own on her lips.

“So, not a lesbian idol, you say?”

Adora only groaned, burying her face in her hands. How was she going to survive this day?

 

~*~

“God, I hate this stupid day.”

“Aw, come one, Catra! This day is all about love! And isn’t love just a wonderful thing?”

Scorpia was watching the happy couples around her in awe, basically absorbing all the love around her as if it were all directed at her. While doing so, she almost forgot to get her materials for the next class out of her locker, until Catra lightly kicked her shin as to remind her that they weren’t there to stare at the people around them as if they were animals at the zoo.

“How should I know? I’ve never been in love before,” Catra growled and rolled her eyes. In contrast to Scorpia, Catra was drowning in a feeling of alienation, absolutely and bitterly loathing the love-struck idiots around her, who didn’t seem to realize anything that was going on around them anymore. She had smashed into at least three couples making out in the hallway on her way to class today, all of them sticking their disgusting tongues down each others throats, and every time she had to witness these horrid scenes she felt like kicking some decency back into these people’s brain. Love really made you blind, what?

“What?! Never!? Not even once??” Scorpia looked flabbergasted, not having expected her best friend to have never gone through the pains and gains of being head over heels for someone. Even Scorpia had been through that, and was currently maybe even going through it again. For her, it was one of the wonders of being human, and she almost felt bad for Catra not having found someone that she could call a significant other yet. Or at least having had fun with someone before – even though she didn’t really have that much experience in that regard either, what with being a 7 foot tall and rather massive woman and all.

“Nope, so I don’t care about this stupid day like  _at all._  Do we really have to make such a big thing out of anything these days? No one likes PDA at any other day of the year, and today it suddenly becomes one hundred percent acceptable? I call bullshit.”

“Yeah, I don’t really get it either. Shouldn’t you pay attention to your partner basically all the time in a relationship? For me that means that I don’t need an extra day to remind me to love my partner or to make them presents! I will just make them whenever I can and I’ll give them to my partner as small surprises from time to time, when they least expect it! I’ve read various articles about how surprises make a relationship more exciting! This day only turns it into an obligation and then it doesn’t feel like a surprise to your partner anymore at all,” Entrapta voiced her train of thought at the topic and Catra couldn’t agree more with her.

“Hmm, maybe you’re right,” Scorpia said, her shoulders dropping just the slightest bit as she finally closed her locker. “But I think this day is also more about giving lovers a day to celebrate what they have. It’s just a reminder that a relationship and love is something special, you know.”

Catra sighed loudly, desperately wanting to put a stop to this conversation as soon as possible. “Are we done now?”

“Even though I didn’t get the necessity behind this day at all, I designed a little app in honor of it anyway! It’s an app that has you take care of a flower of your choice like you had to with your all time favorite childhood toy - a tamagotchi! You need to water it and you have to put it out into to sun in order for it to grow and not die! I even added some quizzes or quick games to it that will reward you with new kinds of flowers to add whenever you complete them! Hahaha!”  
Entrapta excitedly pulled out her phone to show her invention to her friends.

While Scorpia was literally beaming at the idea and asking Entrapta to immediately share the game with her, Catra just facepalmed herself and wondered why she was even hanging out with these people and how in the world they had even become friends when they were clearly all as different as can be.

However, while Scorpia was absolutely enthralled by Entrapta’s app, both having sunken into a deep conversation about its features, something weighed on Catra’s mind and she hated herself for not being able to let go of it.

Unlike some people at school would do, their friend group had decided not to gift each other roses today because they had all agreed on not needing any kind of reminder of their friendship when, obviously, they were everything they all had and basically spending time together every other day of the week.

It just meant that whoever received a rose today would receive one from someone outside their friend group, and while Scorpia had gotten two or three roses from people who like her because of her position in the basketball team, and Entrapta had gotten a rose from a girl called Perfuma for whatever reason Catra didn’t quite get, Catra had – to her utmost surprise – also received something from someone today, even though she had been convinced that she would leave school empty-handed this afternoon.

But not only was she surprised that she had gotten a whole  _bouquet_  of roses today, she absolutely hated the fact that this bouquet had come from  _Adora_ of all people.

Adora and her hadn’t spoken to each other for almost a year as of now and Catra seriously didn’t get what she had wanted to accomplish by sending her a bunch of roses for Valentine’s Day.

It hadn’t made her happy, if anything, it only  _hurt_ her.

It hurt, because it showed that Adora was still thinking about her, that Adora just  _couldn’t let it go_. And Catra hated the other girl for her weakness.

She had been the one who had brought this situation upon them in the first place with joining the soccer team and just… abandoning her for all this  _popularity bullcrap_.

Abandoning her for people that girls like Adora and her just didn’t belong to.

The two of them had grown up in fairly bad conditions as both of them had lost their parents at a very young age, not even making it possible for them to recall the faces of their parents without the help of a few pictures that they were allowed to own at the orphanage; some of the few things they were allowed to keep from their former lives.

As kids, and even in the beginning of High School, they had only had each other, always having been part of the poor and weird outcasts at school. They were known for causing trouble and getting into fights with other students – even though Catra didn’t like to admit that the fights were mainly her liabilities – and they would always stand up for each other no matter the circumstances, no matter the punishment awaiting them, no matter the hate and clear disappointment they would receive in the end. It had become part of their life and as long as they had each other, it didn’t mean anything to them.

They would always be there for each other. That is what they had promised. Alone, at night, in Adora’s bunk bed, under Adora’s blanket and Catra in Adora’s arms.

It hurt that Adora replaced her without having any second thoughts; without  _thinking_  about her and what they would lose and what kind of gap – no, what kind of  _rift_ it would put between them.

Because, no matter how hard Catra tried, she knew she would never get along with the people that Adora called her “new friends” – because they were just so different from them in every way and they were everything they had hated since they were little kids. Because these people were so privileged, entitled, always at the top of everything all because they didn’t have problems like they had – they were leading happy and easy lives and Catra could just not identify with that and she didn’t get how Adora could. They had never had it easy, had to fight for recognition, had to fight for basically everything in their lives because nothing would come to them easily – things had to be earned. Even love. And Catra always drew the short straw, especially when it came to the last thing.

The roses absolutely threw her off-track. The note attached to them made her stomach churn.  
  


“ _I miss you.”_

 

Why couldn’t Adora just let go of her? It would make things so much easier if she wouldn’t always be painfully reminded of what she had lost because Adora was uselessly trying to reach out to her and pull her back into her life. If Adora just forgot about her, she could continue forgetting about her too, and maybe then the hole in her heart could start healing again. This hole Adora had torn into her heart with her own two hands and now so vainly tried to mend again with gestures that made the hole only this much bigger.

Because, to be honest, there was another aspect as to why they weren’t speaking to each other anymore. And that might have to do with some unresolved feelings on Catra’s side and the fact  that Adora simply couldn’t give Catra what she wanted from her. Because, maybe what she had said to Scorpia a minute ago had just been a massive lie.

“Catra? Helloo, earth to Kitty!”

Said person was currently snipping her fingers in front of her face, pulling her out of her self-loathing and depressing thoughts right away, and she was almost,  _almost_ thankful for that.

“Are you okay, Catra?” Scorpia asked her suddenly, carrying a worried look on her face. She must have noticed the dark gloom that had fallen over her face that she now quickly tried to shake off and replace with one of indifference as she always would. It made things so much easier if you just concealed your true emotions from everyone around you.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just tired,” Catra replied and tried to play her mental absence down with a big, feigned yawn.

“Good. We gotta go to our next class,” her biggest friend said and Catra nodded, pulling Entrapta by her hair as her and Scorpia had already started moving but Entrapta had remained in her spot because she was too engrossed in her own little game that she didn’t notice them leaving. As always. Entrapta could be glad that Catra had just learned to have enough patience for people like her.

  
“Let’s just get this stupid day over with,” she mumbled.  
  


~*~

“How many roses did you guys get!?” Bow asked with a sharp and evident crack in his voice, not at all able to contain his excitement when he was already fiercely bouncing up and down on his feet when he ran into Glimmer and Perfuma on the corridor on the way to their next class together.

“I’ve gotten four roses! But all of them were anonymous,” Glimmer said with a big and happy smile on her face. “I already know that one is from Perfuma, since she just told me, and I know that one is probably from Adora, but I guess one is from you, Bow?” the girl teasingly smiled at her best friend who pretended that he didn’t know what she was talking about. But then his demeanor changed completely and he pulled Glimmer into a tight hug.

“Of course one is from me! There’s no one I love more than my best friends!” Bow exclaimed and made Perfuma giggle at the sight of the two friends together.

“You guys are cute. I’ve gotten five roses. Two of them didn’t have a name tag so I wonder who they’re from,” Perfuma mused and Bow wiggled his eyebrows after he had let go of Glimmer.

“Some secret admirers, I would say,” he suggested.

“Probably,” Perfuma giggled. “I also got a link to this very cute and endearing app that Entrapta made. You start off with one flower of your choice and then throughout the game, you get to add more roses to the bouquet when you fulfill little quests or questionnaires. Wait, I’ll show you, it’s such a cute and amazing app.”

Perfuma pulled out her phone and opened up the app. She already had gained three flowers. “And these are the questions you have to answer- Wait a minute,” she stopped in the middle of her explanation when the next question of the game popped up on her screen.

_“What do I like the most about Perfuma?_  
_A) Her patience._

_B) Her flowery smell._

_C) Her gentleness._

_D) Her humbleness,”_  Bow read what was written in the little box that had come up in the game and almost squealed alongside Glimmer. “Oh my gosh, this is the cutest thing ever!” He screamed and Glimmer excitedly asked, “What do you think is the answer, Perfuma?”

The other girl was blushing furiously at this point. “I d-don’t know,” she honestly replied, “I think… maybe A?”

“Well, click it!” Bow urged her and Perfuma did just so. The text in the box changed and suddenly, there was confetti raining over Perfuma’s phone screen and a text message that read,  _“Congratulation! That answer was correct! (Even though I find everything about her very likeable! She’s a very pleasant person to be around!)”_

“Wow Perfuma, I didn’t know you and Entrapta got along this well?” Glimmer said and her voice sounded just a tad bit teasing.

“We do get along quite well,” Perfuma replied sheepishly and then gasped when she saw the type of flower she had unlocked this time. “It’s a Camellia! That’s my favorite type of flower…How did sh- She is so attentive! And here I thought she never listened to me.” A big and bright smile broke out on her face right then and Bow and Glimmer shared a knowing look between each other.

“A-anyway,” Perfuma stammered as she stored her phone away in her bag, “how many roses did you get, Bow?”

“I’ve got four roses and even some chocolate from a boy on my archery team! I guess one rose is from you, Glimmer,” he gave her a knowing and thankful smile, “and then I know that one is from Sea Hawk, ‘cuz he’s a real bro. And I know that one is from Adora.”

“And one is from me,” Perfuma said with a warm smile towards Bow, making the boy blush slightly because he had not expected to be receiving a rose from the girl at all.

“Oh thanks, Perfuma!”

“Oh look, there’s Adora!” Glimmer interrupted the two, pointing ahead of them at the back of the blonde jock that was turned towards the group before calling out to her, “Adora! Wait up!”

The three approached her and all gasped at the sight when Adora turned around to them.   
“Oh, hello guys!” She said, her face barely visible among all the roses she was carrying in her arms.

“That’s  _a lot_ of roses,” Bow said with fascination. Glimmer’s jaw almost met the floor.

“You sure are popular,” Perfuma said, looking a little concerned when she noticed Adora struggle under the weight of all the flowers.

“Hah, yeah, I guess,” Adora laughed nervously and then sighed. “But the roses are not even all of it. People have been giving me boxes of chocolate, handed me letters, gave me  _teddy bears_  and  _I have absolutely no idea where to put it all._ My back is killing me because the weight of the chocolate boxes in my bag is pulling me down, I can’t get any of my textbooks out of my locker because there are so many letters in it and I can’t breathe because all I smell is  _roses._ ”

“You can put some of that stuff in Bow’s car if you want,” Glimmer suggested and even though she had decided for him, Bow just nodded along.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!” Adora almost wanted to cry and hug and kiss her friends all at the same time, that’s how relieved she felt to finally be freed from all the little thoughtful gifts.

But before she could follow Bow outside to his car, she felt a nudge at her jacket and turned around.

Perfuma stood behind her, twirling her thumbs around a little nervously.

“Uhm, would it be okay for you if I met you at your locker after this period?”

“Uh, sure! Of course! I will see you then!” Adora answered and then quickly turned around to follow after Bow, but stumbling and almost hitting couples on her way out because the amount of roses in her hand were blinding.  
  
  


~*~

At lunch, Adora allowed herself a second to breathe. Even though she had put most of the roses, letters, chocolates and various kinds of stuffed animals into the back of Bow’s pick-up truck, she still found herself with a bunch of other roses that she had directly gotten from other students in her arms at lunch.

After the third period, she had met Perfuma at her locker as she had wanted her to, and was surprised to find out that the other girl had prepared herself a self-picked bouquet of wonderfully diverse and colorful flowers that she had wanted to give to Adora.

“I know you’re probably drowning in flowers right now, but I prepared this for you myself,” Perfuma had started, a hint of red adorning her freckled face and Adora almost squeaked at the cuteness of the sight. “I also got you this vegan chocolate that you liked so much at my place the other day. It’s somewhere in between all those flowers. They’re all from our flower shop.”

She had always found Perfuma quite pretty and she loved that the two of them were getting along so well, but she would have never believed that Perfuma would put so much thought into her Valentine’s present for her – to be honest, she didn’t even expect a present from Perfuma today at all.

The bouquet put all the other flowers she had received yet to shame and she could only hug Perfuma tight as words just couldn’t express how thankful she felt.

“You didn’t have to, Perfuma. I already know that we’re good friends without you making me stunning presents,” Adora almost thought that she saw Perfuma wince, but if so, the girl recovered from it pretty quickly and squeezed her back even tighter.

“I had to. You just mean a lot to me,” the girl said, giving Adora a warm smile that she could only return.

Now at her and her friends usual spot in the cafeteria, Adora examined some of the gifts she had gotten after third period.

There were letters from girls she didn’t or barely knew and she wondered just why these girls felt the need to write to her. She wasn’t that special after all, in her honest opinion. Not that she minded the attention, it just really, really proved to be a very unexpected challenge to be so popular. There were girls waiting to speak to her around every corner at school and Adora had not had the opportunity to have one second to herself to focus her thoughts and feelings today.

“Okay so, I know this is kinda lame and you already got, like, thousands of presents today and you are probably super annoyed right now, but I made you something anyway and now I don’t want to be stuck with it, so here you go.”

Adora’s eyes almost popped out of her head when Mermista let an adorable, self-knitted dolphin lucky charm dangle in front of her face.

“Wha- Wha… What… Mermista?! You made me a charm!?”

“Yeah, don’t mention it,” Mermista replied, crossing her arms and looking away from Adora who couldn’t stop marveling at the charm that was now placed in her hands.

“It smells like salt and sand and fish,” Adora whispered, hugging the lucky charm close to her chest.

“I might have dipped it into the ocean once,” Mermista admitted, blushing so hard against her will that her ears were glowing red.

“What did I do to deserve such amazing friends,” Adora said thoughtfully and then flashed Mermista her biggest smile yet. “Thank you so much, Mermista!”

“I said don’t mention it,” Mermista rolled her eyes. “Look, I gotta go to my next class now, so, see you later, or whatever.”

Mermista was just about to leave the cafeteria when a loud and high-pitched scream alerted everyone at their tables.

“There she is! The beauty of the seven seas, the one and only girl for me! MERMIIIIST– Hmppf!!”

“Oh no, you’re not going to sing me a serenade in the fucking cafeteria!” Mermista roared and pressed the palm of her hand harder against Sea Hawk’s mouth. “Don’t you dare say a word when I let go of you now. I really have to get to my class and I don’t want anymore interruptions on my way there, understood?”

Sea Hawk eagerly nodded and sighed in relief when the furious girl let go of him. “See you later?” He tried as Mermista walked off and said without looking back at him, “Yeah, whatever.”

Adora chuckled at Seah Hawk’s vain attempt to win Mermista’s heart over in that way and she wondered if he would ever understand that the other girl didn’t need him to go to these great lengths for her to like him. She already did so anyway, even though she didn’t like to admit it to her group of friends. The amounts of times she and Sea Hawk spend together after school, however, gave her away no matter how hard she fought these claims off.

Sea Hawk gave Adora a small wave when he noticed her at one of the tables but then left the cafeteria as well, probably forgetting all about Mermista’s little warning she had given him just now and stalking behind her like a lost puppy. She knew the procedure.

Adora took another helpless look at the new roses and letters she had gotten before her lunch-break and took some of the tags in her hand to read through the names again.

A lot of people had sent her roses with their names and numbers on them while others remained anonymous as to not expose themselves and their crushes on her.

But, no matter the amount of roses that lay to her feet right now, no matter the amount of love letters that told her how amazing and perfect she was, it all meant so little to her when still a bitter feeling of overwhelming disappointment settled into the pit of her stomach and refused to let her appreciate all the love confessions for her.

She had already told herself not to expect anything, but it still hurt nevertheless when she looked through all the loving courtesies but didn’t find  _that one name_ on one of the tags that would have made her heart literally jump out of her chest.

No, instead of her heart doing fierce backflips inside her chest, it had rather dropped down into her pants in absolute and utter disappointment. And a feeling of rejection. And humiliation.

Humiliation for getting her hopes up so much when it had been so obvious that Catra would not send her a rose or anything like that like all the other people around her had.

After all, they had never done this before to each other even when they were still talking and had even made fun of the people who engaged in this tradition when they were still friends.

So then why, especially after this huge rift had been torn between them,  _why_  had she still hoped to receive a rose from  _Catra_ of all people? Was she really that stupid? Was she really that  _blind?_

She knew Catra.

And Catra wouldn’t change her habits or antics for anyone, and why would she suddenly change them now that Adora was out of her life anyway?

What a stupid thought. And she hated herself for getting so worked up over it and expecting something else to happen today. Something that would have never happened even if they were still speaking to each other.

“Sooo, have you already decided on which movie to watch later?” Bow’s loud and cheery voice suddenly pulled her back to the there and then. She hadn’t even realized that Glimmer and Bow had joined her at the table and were talking heatedly to each other, discussing who had gotten a rose from whom today and any possible new romances developing between their peers that were all kinds of unexpected.

Adora was not used to this type of gossip but she decided to let herself be consumed by it in order to let go of her other, not so nice thoughts for the moment.

“No, have you?” Adora asked Glimmer and Bow and Glimmer immediately went to answer.  
“Let’s watch Love, Actually!”

“That’s a Christmas movie, Glimmer,” Bow assessed with a frown. “Not really in the mood for that.”  
  
“But it’s still a good movie. Right, Adora?” Glimmer turned to her for support but Adora truly had no idea about that movie at all.

“Ugh, I don’t know. Never seen it. Catra and I would always watch these awful slasher movies for Valentine’s Day,” Adora told her friends, her thoughts again drifting off to memories that hurt and comforted her at the same time.

“Of course you would watch stuff like that with her. I wouldn’t have expected any less,” Glimmer said with an ironic huff and Adora almost felt like defending herself or Catra, about to tell her that she never got the hype behind Valentine’s Day to begin with, but the roses tickling her fingers stopped her.

The roses finally made her realize and understand just how important that day was for other people. It was a day that they took as an opportunity to confess their deepest feelings for another person – it was a day that gave them courage, because on Valentine’s Day, it suddenly just felt possible to share your feelings with someone else because that is what the whole day is all about.

 

It was all about love and about sharing it with the people that meant the most to you.

 

Why hadn’t Catra and her realized that before? She could have shown Catra how much she cared about her so easily all along.

“ _Catra…,”_ Adora thought to herself. She clenched her fist on her thigh under the table.

This day had only made the pain in her chest worse. People openly showing how much they cared for each other – her friends showing her how much they cared  _about her and loved her_  – it all made her sad to finally understand that Catra just  _didn’t care_ about her anymore.

She had made painfully sure to avoid crossing any kind of trash bin in the hallways as to not find herself confronted with the realization that Catra had dumped the roses she had commissioned for her into the trash. That would have been the final push to send her over the edge and down the dark hole of desperation and torment. She wouldn’t have been able to process that.

She had tried her best for them at all times. She had tried to get Catra to get to know her friends, but the other girl had profusely declined the offer every single time. Claiming she would never be able to see eye to eye with her new friends. Claiming they were way too different to have anything in common.

Claiming they would never get along.

If only she could make Catra see that it wasn’t like that at all. Adora managed to get along with these people she had loathed before just fine; had realized that they weren’t that different from her or Catra and that people like Glimmer or Bow had their own kinds of problems and demons to fight.

It was not just them who had had it rough, but Catra would probably never try understand that; maybe even out of spite alone.

“Adora! What’s wrong with you?! You’re totally spacing out and you look like a puppy that has just been kicked across the room!” Glimmer was roughly shaking her by her shoulders, trying to get her back.

“Glimmer, stop, wait!” She tried to get her best friend to stop shaking her around like a milkshake, because she was already starting to feel sick. Glimmer fortunately let go of her and Adora tried to catch her breath again.

“I’m fine guys! I’m fine. Just a little… tired, you know? With training and all coming up again and then all this overwhelming love for me today, it’s just… a lot. A lot.” She repeated the last part hollowly, with no emotion to it.

Bow immediately tried to change the topic, although it didn’t exactly work out in his favor.  
“Did you send anyone besides us roses, Adora?” He wanted to know, his eyes glimmering with unsuppressed zeal so much that it was almost blinding.

Adora struggled to formulate an answer. To be specific, she started to nervously flinch around in her seat and Glimmer momentarily grew suspicious.

“You didn’t send  _her_ roses, did you?” Glimmer asked, deadpan expression on her face as she immediately caught on to her best friend’s odd behavior.

Adora winced.

“Oh, Adora!” Bow cried out, his features softening drastically when he understood the emotional discomfort that Adora was currently going through momentarily, his empathy leaking through his voice and eyes like soft bandaids being applied to Adora’s psychological wounds.

“Adora, you need to let her go. I mean it. She seriously doesn’t seem to want to put any energy into this relationship anymore and what’s even more important, she  _won’t change._  You gave her more than enough chances to prove to you that she still cares, but…,” Glimmer stopped talking the second she saw the corners of Adora’s mouth turning upside down and a small but painfully evident quiver tugging at them.

“I’m sorry, Adora, I didn’t mean to be so blunt, I just…,” but Glimmer was at a loss for words. She practically saw the lights in Adora’s eyes go dim.

“We don’t want to see you suffer like this, Adora,” Bow finished in Glimmer’s stead and she was so glad that he had found a way to voice their concerns for her.

“Can we please… talk about something else?” Adora tried, her voice hoarse and laced with suppressed hurt.  
It was always turning out this way – Adora would shut down the conversation, they would comply as to not make this any worse for her, but they would never find a solution to this problem.

They just knew that at one point or the other, the two girls would have to talk it out eventually to get at least some kind of closure. Or else they would never be able to heal. Both of them.

“Okay, for today’s sake,” Glimmer said. And then she took Adora into a really tight and warm embrace, and Bow joined them, pulling the two girls into his muscular arms as well.

“We love you, Adora. Don’t you ever forget that. We’re always here for you,” Bow mumbled into the embrace and he felt Adora nod her head under his chin.

“Thanks, you guys.”

“Best friend squad forever,” Bow said.

 

~*~

Adora had never been more happy to hear the last bell for the day ring, announcing that they were now all free to go and meaning that she would finally be able to get away from the drastically increased affection directed at her.

Never once before had she gone through so many spoken love confessions, received kisses to her cheeks, forehead or even mouth, gotten buried in presents so much that she was almost literally drowning in love.

“Can we please get out of here? NOW?!” Adora grabbed one of Bow’s muscular arms when she found him stashing some of his textbooks away into his locker, and barely gave him time to close it when she was already dragging him away from it and down the hallway.

The blonde jock hid behind him, using him as a human shield to protect her from any other lovestruck girl trying to get close to her. If this was what celebrities had to go through every day with these nasty paparazzi, she would rather do anything to make her name disappear from this world.

“Are you okay?” Bow chuckled, looking behind his back were Adora was hiding.

“NO!” She screamed at him, grabbing him by his collar. “This was absolute MADNESS! Please just get me out of here, or else I’m going to lose it!!”

Adora’s eyes were wide open, a little crazed, a little paranoid, and Bow almost felt bad for her if the sight weren’t so funny.

“Oookay, let’s get you out of here,” Bow said gently and slowly as if his best friend were a patient at a mental asylum (she did quite look like one at this point), and lead her outside.

In the car, Adora immediately locked the doors from the inside, slumping down in the backseat and trying to get away from the windows as best as she could.

“Tell Glimmer she needs to come, right now!”

“Already doing it!” Bow said from the front where he was typing away on his phone.

Two minutes later, Glimmer was sitting in the front passenger seat, hair tousled and hand gripping at her chest in exasperation.  
“We need to get out of here, ASAP!”

“What the hell happened to you?!” Bow screeched, taking in the horrifying state their friend was in. Parts of her clothes appeared torn, there were some kind of smudges on her face and her hair was a literal mess.

“They want Adora. They are all panicking because they haven’t given her their presents yet and now they’re looking for her. We need. to. Go!”

“And what happened to yo-”

“They held me hostage so I would tell them were Adora is. Please, no further questions. It was… It was terrifying.” A shudder rippled through Glimmer’s whole body at the memory.

Meanwhile, Adora was now lying down on the backseat, hands interlocked and silently saying prayers to the ceiling.

“Alriiiiight, that’s a new level of crazy that we’ve reached here,” Bow concluded and was again fiercely grabbed by his collar, this time by Glimmer.

“Fucking GO, Bow!”

“Yes, ma’am!” The boy screeched and reversed out of the parking lot, the tires of his car squeaking against the concrete.

And while they were driving, he just hoped that the next Valentine’s Day wouldn’t turn out to be this crazy.

 

~*~

They pulled up at Glimmer’s and Adora’s house, Adora still looking out the back window every now and then to make sure no one had followed them to their house.

“I think we’re good,” she said, although her whole demeanor said otherwise. She still looked as if she had been through a zombie apocalypse.

“Yeah, ookay, how about we get into the house, make ourselves some nice cups of hot chocolate, bundle ourselves up in some blankets and then pretend this day never happened?” Bow suggested and both girls nodded eagerly. “What do you want me to do with the letters and roses in my trunk?” Bow asked Adora, who immediately went as white as a sheet.  
“Okay, forget that I asked, I will take care of it.”

“Thank you!” Adora sounded so relieved that Bow couldn’t help but smile at her.

They scrambled out of the car and made it into the house without anymore interruptions or desperate teenagers waiting for them around the corner.

Glimmer and Adora both heaved a sigh of utmost relief when they were inside the house and held each other close.

“I will prepare the hot chocolate. You two go upstairs and pick out a movie,” Bow said and disappeared into the kitchen.

“Hello, my dears,” Glimmer’s mother, Angella, suddenly appeared in the hallway, where Gimmer and Adora were still shakily hugging each other closer to their chests, leaving a gigantic paper stash she had been working on behind in the living room for a moment to greet her daughter and her best friends before a concerned look settled on her face.  
“Is everything alright?” She asked, her eyebrows knitting together at the sight of Glimmer and the other girl hunched over at the door as if they had just run a marathon across the country.

“Just two words:  _Valentine’s Day_ ,” Glimmer said, not able to muster anything else up at this point.

The frown on her mother’s face deepened. “Uhm, alright.” She didn’t quite get what that meant, but for now, she decided not to press for answers as she first wanted the two girls to take a breath that they apparently needed and for them to calm down. But then she turned to the blonde jock, startling her a little when she suddenly said, “Adora, there’s a delivery for you in the living room.”

Adora raised her eyebrows in surprise. “What, really?”

She immediately made her way into the living room and felt the air being knocked out of her lungs at the sight that was presented to her right after she had entered.

There, in the middle of the room on the coffee table, stood the most impressive bouquet of the most wonderful white roses she had ever seen in her life.

White roses were her absolute favorite type of flowers.

She loved them because Catra once told her that their whiteness stood for purity – innocence, and charm. The white stood for something unstained, untouched, just  _pure_   _and sincere._  
Ever since then, she never had the feeling that red roses – the literal declaration of love -- could mean as much as their white counterparts. For her, white roses encompassed the meaning of the deepest feelings one person could have for another more concretely than red roses, or roses of any other color, could ever have.  
Sure, it probably did have a lot to do with Catra having been the one to teach her the meaning of white roses, but besides that little detail, they just looked beautiful to Adora in every way.

They were everything they couldn’t be. They were everything she wanted them to be, but that they just couldn't. Not right now.

Still.

Still–

They were white. White like a blank page. White like a blank page waiting for its writer to put down the very first words for a beginning of a new story. White like an empty canvas waiting for its artist to place the first gentle lines or colors on it to begin their next fantastic drawing.

White and blank, waiting for a new story to be told.

Her stomach twisted and turned and her hands were sweating. As she approached the bouquet, she grew nervous to an amount that made her whole body shake, and when she saw the yellow piece of paper attached to one of the white roses, her legs almost gave in completely.

She gently took the paper in her hand and turned it around.

  
  


“ _This is not because I like you._

  
  


–  _Catra”_

  
  


Reading this, she almost smiled. If it weren’t for the tight knot in her throat and the tears prickling at her eyes.

“Adora? What did you get, lemme see- Oh…” Glimmer was instantly silenced when she saw Adora now kneeling in front of the most impressive bouquet of roses she had ever seen.  
“Who are they from?” Glimmer’s voice was so quiet as if she already had a hunch about who the sender of the roses could be. And who was Adora kidding? Her pathetic and weak sniveling probably gave everything away in the first place.

But words failed Adora, overwhelmed by the pure emotions she was feeling right in this moment. It was a mix of everything, from negative to positive, from hope to hopelessness, from anguish to deepest solace.

She felt her best friend kneel down beside her and observing the yellow paper like she had done just moments before.

Then Glimmer pulled her into another tight hug, and Adora let go.

Let go of the hurt that she had bottled up to this very point; let go of the uncertainty that had plagued her mind night in and night out.

“Seems like not all hope is lost, what?” Glimmer said and laughed lightly when she felt Adora nod into her shoulder.

“What’s going on?! Why is Adora crying?!” Bow stormed into the living room, almost spilling all the hot chocolate he had prepared so lovingly before on the floor and over his yellow crop-top. Even he stopped short when he saw the roses and then looked at Glimmer for confirmation. She mouthed the name  _Catra_ at him and Bow gasped audibly before placing the three mugs on the table next to the roses and taking Adora in his arms once again - a repetition of their caring for her like the time in the cafeteria earlier that day.

“You guys should  _really_ talk it out, you know?” He whispered and Adora nodded eagerly again and again.

“I know… I-I… I will do so tomorrow morning. At school. I promise,” Adora replied quietly, voice thick with emotion.

“Hey, Adora?” Glimmer started and looked at her best friend and the blonde jock immediately noticed the hint of an idea sprouting in her best friend’s glowing eyes.

“Do you want to watch one of these horrible slasher movies with us? Introduce us to your weird tradition?”

The other girl grinned widely at that idea. “I would love to!”

“Okay, we can do that, but can we maybe please not let this become like a  _real_  tradition?” Bow intervened somewhat nervously. “I have a weak stomach, that’s all,” he finally admitted shyly and Adora let go of a really ugly snort.  

“Don’t laugh, Adora. Not everyone is into weird stuff like you!” Bow defended himself and gently nudged her side.

“Am not!” Adora defended back and soon Glimmer joined in with their bickering until the three of them decided that it was now time to watch this stupid movie together.

However, Adora couldn’t really resist giving the roses one last and long-lasting glance before she left the living room to give it back to Angella and her work.

Catra’s note, however, was playing on her mind for the rest of the day, and with the hot chocolate, her best friends at her side and at least one of her traditions finding its way back to her even on this weird and unusual Valentine’s Day, Adora finally felt at ease.

Still, she knew. She knew the real meaning behind the thing that Catra had written on that paper. And she was slightly amused at the very much Catra-like way to bring this message across.

It was Valentine’s Day after all.  
And what was Valentine’s Day but a day for people to show each other just how much they really cared.

  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Also, people waiting for part two of my other fic "Some things you don't see coming" - rest assured that you will get that second chapter pretty soon as well. I'm already 13 pages into it and I can already tell you that it's gonna be huge and fluffy. 
> 
> You should also totally check out my tumblr and hmu there, it's kouhasbuttcheek (I post a lot of she-ra on there atm)
> 
> Oh and one other little thing: if any of my writing should seem like a jumbled mess to you, it's probably because my native tongue is German 
> 
> ANOTHER THING: you should TOTALLY check out bitfibbers fanfiction "As we get older, plainer, saner" ... honestly, just do it and you'll be in for a helluva ride


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